coachpotato

I don’t necessarily think it’s a loss of form as such, we were playing at a high peak, very consistently two seasons ago, I just feel we don’t hit that peak as consistently, (while still being a very good football team it has to be said), and at this stage of the CL, and with the teams left in it and the level of technical skill on show, you have to be peak level pretty much all the time to progress and win. We’re still bloody good though.

We shouldn’t be afraid of playing anybody if we play to our best. But there’s the rub. Couple of seasons ago, we were the team nobody wanted to draw, now I’m not so certain that’s the case.

PSG are a bit of a show pony team I think, Messi, for all his skill, doesn’t appear to be the kind of player who’d roll up his sleeves and do a bit of chasing back, (look how he played at Anfield in the semi-final a couple of seasons back), Neymar even less so, di Maria the same, Mbappe might do in the right team and for the right manager, not that we’ll be seeing it anytime soon, but they aren’t particularly good defensively when put under real pressure either. Flatter to deceive. A bit like Spurs, as has been pointed out.

Pace goal. Doesn’t count. Brilliant finish.

We’ve been a bit off recently, passing poorer than normal, chances not being put away, even Matip’s poor pass out that led to their goal, not the sort of thing we’ve been accustomed to. However, we are through to the quarter finals and we’ve won one of the four trophies that are available to win. Of course, overall we need to improve, (but then you should always be aiming for perfection anyway), but sometimes you meet a team who’s style and application just seem to prevent you from playing the way you normally do. A bit like Athletico Madrid, and although not as cynical, I felt Inter were like that tonight. I also agree with Dion Dublin, who said on Radio 5, on the way home, that he felt we kept Inter where we wanted, bar for an unexpected worldie from Martinez, and that we could have gone up a gear if needed in his opinion. We lost, but we didn’t, which is a big plus, and I expect things will be getting addressed by Klopp and his back room staff tomorrow at training. What we’re trying to do is a very big ask, and it disappoints when we fail at anything, but I’m sure the players are as disappointed as we are. At least we’re not Everton.

Cap doffed Mr Kelly sir.

The only team that’s going to help us win the league is us. And that’s only if we keep on winning. We may have to win all our games to do it. Even then, it’s possible we finish level on points with City and goal difference would decide it. Mathematically possible, and it won’t be decided until it’s mathematically impossible to do so. Tall order, but we have to believe.

Made hard work of that, but three points and on we go. Diaz I think would prefer to be counter attacking, rather than having to try and work his magic between lines of compact defenders, but we’ve obviously bought him to develop so I expect there’ll be improvement in his contribution, even though he’s shown enough already that he’s a good addition to the squad. Mo and Sadio have looked out of sorts since the AFCON and I can’t remember a game where they had such poor passing as today’s, might have been different had Mo put the early chance away but hopefully, this will be just a blip. Can’t expect us to ride roughshod over every team we play, and I expect there might be other performances like today’s before the end of the season, but as long as we keep winning……..

Mbappe, Haaland, Bellingham…………? Jurgen is the best signing we could make. If he were to agree to stay on until, say, 2027, then that type of calibre of player would be more attracted to coming here than to most other clubs I believe. But with him not here, I doubt any of them would want to come to a club transitioning between managers, particularly to one who is unlikely to be as good as the one that’s just left. Unless it’s Guardiola who comes in? (dons tin hat!)

I just wonder if Cazoo agreed to continue to sponsor if they were successful and challenging for European football?

Here we go again. This “NFL” of European football has been coming for years, certainly since the CL format changed to allowing multiple teams from multiple leagues to qualify. The endgame was going to be the ESL, but the introduction was botched and, rightly, it was fucked off. It was never going away of course, and so we come to this hybrid, expanded version of the current CL format which is going to cause a real logistical problem with domestic cup competitions and international qualification matches and friendlies as it means even more games for those elite teams players who are involved in these matches. The whole shooting match needs to be sorted out and soon, not least because I could imagine Klopp for one looking at it and saying “fuck this” after all he’s been trying to say about players having too much pressure put on them.

Probably thought it might be buried in all the coverage of Ukraine and because Williamson is such a useless prick nobody would be bothered. This bunch take cronyism and corruption to an entirely new level with each passing day. Proof that you can fool some of the people all of the time.

Plucky. So were Boreham Wood.

They have absolutely no chance of scoring one, never mind the two they need to win.

Surely the Corinthians will applaud the underdogs off?

“Every ticket has been sold” , why are there empty blue seats around the ground then? Edit: Maybe they’ll need this credit when they get to the final so they can get a ticket?

Commentator just then “ The moans and groans are getting louder” Rat boy will dive for a penalty, guaranteed.

Proper “powers that be” draw that.

Can someone ask this knob what the euromillions numbers will be please? Thanks.

If DaveK has a player valuation of £90m, where does that leave Pilks on a valuation of £2.5m? Some on here have a higher valuation than that. If he’s fewming at what is on here, imagine how he’d feel if he paid the Membership fee and read what’s on there!

Sounds churlish to say it after we’ve gone through, but that last 20 or so minutes was frustrating because we just switched off, got complacent and if it weren’t for Alisson we’d probably be playing extra time against a team with fuck all to lose and their tails up. It shouldn’t happen when you’ve dominated play, scored two goals and looked all over that you’d get another two at least. Anyway, through to the next round, hope we get a decent draw, love to see Chelsea get Everton!

Just looked it up, Bates bought them for £1 in 1982 and Abramovich gave him £18m when he took the club over, the club had debts of £80m at the time.

Didn’t he buy them off Bates for a £1? Or was that someone else?

They’d then always be the club that had the longest stay in the top division without being relegated.

Surely that’s “unearned income”? FFP not breached then?